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  <section id="compile-definitions">
<span id="prop_tgt:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS"></span><h1>COMPILE_DEFINITIONS<a class="headerlink" href="#compile-definitions" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
<p>Preprocessor definitions for compiling a target's sources.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS</span></code> property may be set to a semicolon-separated
list of preprocessor definitions using the syntax <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">VAR</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">VAR=value</span></code>.
Function-style definitions are not supported.  CMake will
automatically escape the value correctly for the native build system
(note that CMake language syntax may require escapes to specify some
values).</p>
<p>CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported
by the native build tool.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">Added in version 3.26: </span>Any leading <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-D</span></code> on an item will be removed.</p>
</div>
<p>Disclaimer: Most native build tools have poor support for escaping
certain values.  CMake has work-arounds for many cases but some values
may just not be possible to pass correctly.  If a value does not seem
to be escaped correctly, do not attempt to work-around the problem by
adding escape sequences to the value.  Your work-around may break in a
future version of CMake that has improved escape support.  Instead
consider defining the macro in a (configured) header file.  Then
report the limitation.  Known limitations include:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><table class="docutils align-default">
<tbody>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">#</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken almost everywhere.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">;</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken in VS IDE 7.0 and Borland Makefiles.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">,</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken in VS IDE.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken in some cases in NMake.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&amp;</span> <span class="pre">|</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken in some cases on MinGW.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">^</span> <span class="pre">&lt;</span> <span class="pre">&gt;</span> <span class="pre">\</span> <span class="pre">&quot;</span></code></p></td>
<td><p>Broken in most Make tools on Windows.</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div></blockquote>
<p>CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in
some cases.  Use with caution.</p>
<p>Contents of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS</span></code> may use &quot;generator expressions&quot; with the
syntax <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$&lt;...&gt;</span></code>.  See the <span class="target" id="index-0-manual:cmake-generator-expressions(7)"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../manual/cmake-generator-expressions.7.html#manual:cmake-generator-expressions(7)" title="cmake-generator-expressions(7)"><code class="xref cmake cmake-manual docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmake-generator-expressions(7)</span></code></a> manual
for available expressions.  See the <span class="target" id="index-0-manual:cmake-buildsystem(7)"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../manual/cmake-buildsystem.7.html#manual:cmake-buildsystem(7)" title="cmake-buildsystem(7)"><code class="xref cmake cmake-manual docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmake-buildsystem(7)</span></code></a> manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.</p>
<p>The corresponding <span class="target" id="index-0-prop_tgt:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;"></span><a class="reference internal" href="COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_CONFIG.html#prop_tgt:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;" title="COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;"><code class="xref cmake cmake-prop_tgt docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;</span></code></a> property may
be set to specify per-configuration definitions.  Generator expressions
should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.</p>
</section>


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